Attention climbers! Bad bolts & routes to avoid

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*Updated Jan 8th* To all climbers: please read this entire post for a list of routes with potentially bad bolts. A batch of defective bolts sold between June 2010 – January 2011 by manufacturer Rockland has been recalled, but unfortunately at the time of the recall several of these bolts had already been used to equip new routes on Kalymnos. Please note that the routes with potentially defective bolts are recent, so they are not in the guidebook. When we found out about the bad bolts we contacted all equippers (that we know of) who bolted routes in the past year to try and locate those with Rockland bolts, but we haven’t been able to track down all the routes yet.

Here’s a list of routes where defective Rockland bolts may have been used. Chances are that most of these routes are safe, but until we are able to check and/or replace ALL bad bolts we strongly suggest you do NOT climb them. We will update the list as needed, so please keep checking back.

Please note that the hangers by Rockland are safe; the problem is with the bolts. In some cases hangers from other companies are combined with Rockland (2010-11) bolts or vice-versa.

We apologize to the equippers for temporarily “blacklisting” their routes. This has nothing to do with the beauty of the route or their equipping skills, but strictly with the bad quality of the bolts. There are plenty of other routes to climb on Kalymnos in the meantime and safety should always, always come first.

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on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 at 23:33 and is filed under Kalymnos news.
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Hi there,
Thanks for this information. Being such a popular place, if possible I would like to try and help. I will be there next week and can possibly bring some bolts/hangers.
Is the problem essentially with the bolt itself or both hanger and bolt?
Thanks and looking forward to climbing in Greece!

@Lee and Dave, i just spoken to Urs Odermatt the equipper of these routes at Spartan Wall. For all of them he has used Raumer bolts which have not problems. Perhaps it is surface oxidisation which happens sometimes in areas near the sea but the bolt is strong.

@Francis, hi, thank you for offering to help. I will be there next week too, we can contact then. The problem with Rockland bolts is just the bolts (bad quality steel). The hangers are OK.

When we climbed the lower grade routes mentioned in Arginonta back in September we were puzzled by the rusty appearance of some of the bolts there. But as those routes had only just be opened in Spring we thought that this would be simply surface oxidisation.

Thanks everyone for doing such a great job in listing this and looking for ways to fix the routes affected. One of those many little things that makes climbing in Kalymnos such a great experience! Keep the good work up.

And as to those easier Arginonta climbs: It would be great to see them fixed. We enjoyed them a lot. We were under the impression that they offered an interesting and constant climbing experience despite their 4x grade. Not just “low end fillers”.

HI again Aris and others,
I will bring along a fair amount of bolts but would love some help and perhaps the use of a drill. I arrive on the 14 and stay for 10 days.
easiest contact for me is francis(at)nosiesta(dot)net

climbed the routes at at Sector Arginonta and put up a new 4c between Takis and No Blaba called Rebecca 20m. I used 10mm x 90mm inox marine grade stainless steel spitbolts and Fixe 20kn Hangers, together with a Fixe lower off from Steve at the Glaros.
Back sometime in April/May so will hopefully catch up with you then.
noticed the rust on a few of the bolts just thought it was oxidisation as Raph states above, excellent routes though so hope the crag can be sorted.

On the subject of bad bolts I thought a couple of routes and their belays are over-due for re-bolting at Panorama in particular Super Carpe Diem and Joggel and Toggle extension which might best be re-equipped with 4 belays as it has acquired a logical lower-off (a single bolt with 2 mailons) before the desperate boulder problem which is currently very scary. Same applies for some of the ones on Cigarello.

Por Una Sociedad con Mujeres Satisfechas in Sikati Cave – the 12th bolt is black with rust and the quicklink is half worn through. I bailed early because I didn’t want to risk taking a fall on it. My partner followed on TR and the 4th bolt ripped out of the wall when she fell. A few others might need to be replaced as well. Also, there is a goat stuck down there.